as in changing
to pass from one form, state, or level to another
colored lights that slowly mutate from green to blue and so on across the color spectrum
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Recent Examples of mutating
In the games, the ghost town operates as an ever-mutating mindspace.
—
Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 23 Jan. 2026
However, cases have sharply risen since 2021, likely due to a combination of mutating bacteria and declining rates of vaccination overall, especially among teens getting a booster dose for bacterial meningitis, doctors suggest.
—Kaitlin Sullivan, NBC news, 11 Jan. 2026
Experts who spoke to Flow Space are hopeful that these new approvals will provide the necessary tools to treat a disease that evades treatment by constantly mutating.
—Helen Carefoot, Flow Space, 16 Dec. 2025
In the five years since, Geese has emerged as a new beacon of post-punk, mutating into an ambitious art-rock experiment across three albums.
—Jillian Steinhauer, New Yorker, 14 Nov. 2025
From containers to serverless functions, cloud architecture keeps mutating.
—Daniel Fusch, Ascend Agency, 28 Oct. 2025
This dark side to Gen Z’s millennial backlash and desire to relive the turn of the millennium is showing signs of mutating in disturbing and unprecedented directions.
—Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 21 Oct. 2025
Once dismissed as a Nineties fad, shoegaze has never stopped mutating and expanding as a musical language.
—Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 17 Oct. 2025
However, such dormancy could be a life strategy too, keeping the bacterium stable with its DNA replicated (albeit with next to no chance of mutating or evolving) every time the host divides.
—New Atlas, 16 Oct. 2025
Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 23 Jan. 2026
However, cases have sharply risen since 2021, likely due to a combination of mutating bacteria and declining rates of vaccination overall, especially among teens getting a booster dose for bacterial meningitis, doctors suggest.
—Kaitlin Sullivan, NBC news, 11 Jan. 2026
Experts who spoke to Flow Space are hopeful that these new approvals will provide the necessary tools to treat a disease that evades treatment by constantly mutating.
—Helen Carefoot, Flow Space, 16 Dec. 2025
In the five years since, Geese has emerged as a new beacon of post-punk, mutating into an ambitious art-rock experiment across three albums.
—Jillian Steinhauer, New Yorker, 14 Nov. 2025
From containers to serverless functions, cloud architecture keeps mutating.
—Daniel Fusch, Ascend Agency, 28 Oct. 2025
This dark side to Gen Z’s millennial backlash and desire to relive the turn of the millennium is showing signs of mutating in disturbing and unprecedented directions.
—Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 21 Oct. 2025
Once dismissed as a Nineties fad, shoegaze has never stopped mutating and expanding as a musical language.
—Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 17 Oct. 2025
However, such dormancy could be a life strategy too, keeping the bacterium stable with its DNA replicated (albeit with next to no chance of mutating or evolving) every time the host divides.
—New Atlas, 16 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mutating
Verb
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Photons, for example, can bounce off an atom and carry off positional information about it without changing the quantum state of the system.—
Quanta Magazine,
Quanta Magazine,
13 Feb. 2026
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Al Flowers, who has lived on King Drive for about four years but has stayed in the area nearly his entire life, wants neighbors to continue to host public meetings about future developments to ensure residents like himself have a voice in how the area is changing.—
Everett Eaton,
jsonline.com,
13 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Data on the cloud doesn’t disappear The policy also makes clear that footage can stay on cloud servers for varying amounts of time, but also gives users the right to view and delete video at their discretion.—
Safiyah Riddle,
Chicago Tribune,
11 Feb. 2026
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With 65 bedrooms, 20 apartments and four lofts, the range of accommodations suits groups of varying sizes.—
Melinda Sheckells,
HollywoodReporter,
11 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Set inside the world’s most popular video game, the film imagines a next-gen AI system that allows in-game characters to become sentient, shifting the game from entertainment into a living universe that awakens, evolves and begins interacting with human beings.—
Emiliano De Pablos,
Variety,
13 Feb. 2026
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To his credit, the filmmaker handles this dark material with considerable showmanship, shifting from the most striking chiaroscuro black-and-white to bursts of near-garish technicolor, giving each grim coda a distinct visual texture.—
Ben Croll,
IndieWire,
13 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Mutating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mutating. Accessed 14 Feb. 2026.
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